Tiger Leaping Gorges

 set off at dawn to the bus stop, and after only one and a half hours we arrive in Xiaotao. Petter is Swedish and is doing the same trek. We buy our tickets and while he is eating breakfast I try to find the entrance to the Gorges. In my search I meet a group of hikers: two are from India, 3 from Mexico. They are so friendly that after 5 minutes I feel like we set off on this trek together and that I’m part of the group.

Our sense of direction is not so good though and after a while we discover that we are on the wrong path and that we have to go back, general laughter. But once we find the arrows we’re on our way. 

What a beautiful day we spend walking, chatting, laughing! The topest toilet, a lady sells weed there. The scenery is extraordinary. The higher we get, the closer we get to the mountains, the highest one is over 5000 meters. The 28 bends are very tough, but it helps counting down.

 We are all very happy when we can sit down and have lunch as a reward. Sergio, Moha, Julieta, Ananya, Tejas and I, the Tiger group. Our plan is to reach Halfway guesthouse by five o’clock, but we meet some sheep, have to cross a dangerous bridge and it is closer to six when we arrive. 

Petter is waiting for us there and joins in the group for supper together. The next day is even better than the previous one. We arrive at Tina’s guesthouse around midday, there’s only time to do one thing: walk to Walnut Garden or climb down to the river. We agree to do the latter. The water is several hundreds of meters underneath us and it is quite steep. Down is ok, but we also have to go back up. Better not to think about it. The view is breathtaking. The water is so powerful, there is no way you can survive a fall into that current. On our way up we take a ladder. It is almost vertical, and we all try to avoid looking down while climbing. 

The group splits here, only Petter and I go to Lijang, the others are heading to Shangri La. We have to take two buses to get to Lijang. The first one drives us to where the road has collapsed, and then we have to walk to the other side to take the next bus which waits for us on the other side. Petter calls his hostel, great, they have space for me, and they even buy the tickets for Kunming two days later. Such a nice hostel! The price is nice too…but sometimes a little luxury is necessary.